Courtney Love Cleared in Landmark Twitter Defamation Case

Courtney Love has one less legal matter to worry about and she set a precedent in the process. Love was cleared of defamation charges Friday (Jan. 24) in Los Angeles, as a jury ruled that she did not defame San Diego attorney Rhonda Holmes in a tweet. The case marked the first-ever defamation lawsuit brought to trial over a Twitter message.

The case centered on one of Love's tweets that went public. Holmes alleged that the tweet insinuated that she had been "bought off." The lawyer had represented Love at one point, aiding the singer as she sought to defend Kurt Cobain's legacy against those who had been ripping her off.

Holmes filed the $8 million lawsuit after the tweet went public and during the course of the trial it was revealed that Love had meant to private message someone who was asking if she felt her lawyers had been "bought off," but accidentally made the response public. In the response, she directed the person to contact Holmes for a quote.

Speaking on the matter Wednesday (Jan. 22), Love stated, "Now I know how to [direct message] perfectly. Then I didn't know how to [direct message] perfectly."

According to the New York Daily News, Holmes claimed she was fired because she asked Love to stay clean and sober for their litigation and became "angry" and "retaliated" with the tweet when Holmes moved on to other clients. During the case, Love's legal team argued that Holmes had failed to follow up on information that would have been pertinent to the case and that the singer felt abandoned in her quest for justice.

Love did not make it back to court in time Friday when the verdict was read.